Obama signs executive order banning payments for abortions

President Barack Obama signed an executive order barring taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for abortions, keeping to a pledge he made to help push his health care reform through Congress.

The White House issued a photograph of Obama signing the measure in the Oval Office, surrounded by pro-life Democrats led by Representative Bart Stupak, whose votes were crucial in the 216-212 passage of the historic health bill on Sunday.

Stupak last year co-sponsored a bipartisan amendment to the bill that severely restricted federal funding for abortions in the United States. In negotiations before Sunday’s vote in the House, Obama’s executive order won over the holdouts.

Obama’s measure does not alter existing legislation on abortion, stressed White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, adding that the president maintained his support for a woman’s right to choose to terminate her pregnancy.

The executive order, Gibbs said, “ensures that health care, the law the president signed (Tuesday), maintains the status quo of the federal law prohibiting the use of federal dollars for abortion.”

Comments

Isn’t the Unitary Executive great. I mean before we used to have to wait for Congress to make a law and control the purse strings which could take years of heated debate. Now the UE can do things in mere days based on back room dealings. Forget that nonsense about it being a dictatorship! It’s just streamlined government as promised! (YES THIS IS SARCASM!!!)